Built in the seventies, the Westwood Tower lacks architectural expression and amenities. Deriving its identity from the exposed concrete construction, it presents itself as a ‘building without characteristics’, being neither inspiring nor appealing. Nevertheless, the building quality and layout of the apartments are good. Therefore an intense refurbishment of the tower is considered. But a mere renovation won’t be enough, something special is needed to give it a new iconic expression. A sky village is created by stacking 13 penthouses on top of each other.

What type of penthouses would be most desirable in Singapore? A villa in the sky with a private sky terrace would combine the exclusive intimacy of a villa with the grand views of a penthouse. The new sky village is organized around a central core area with 3 spiraling stairlike cantilevering rooms with terraces above. Each penthouse has access to a large terrace. To achieve maximum privacy most penthouses are duplexes. The new structure is positioned on top of the existing tower via a structural transfer layer in which several elements of the collective sky deck are integrated (the pools, the tree pots, etc).